Scheduled Interruption

I really dislike posting things without pictures... it makes for a boring post. But this is one of the necessary evils as this blog will probably be untouched for a month.

5/24 - 5/28 - business trip to MA, USA

6/31 - 6/4 - business trip to KY, USA

6/12 - 6/26 -business trip to Japan (*update*- now, it'll only be 6/12 -6/21)

I have projects that I hate to leave unfinished for other things, especially work. But so far, the model production schedule is as follows -

1) Finish drilling magnet holes in pewter Tyrant body (note to self- this is friggin' garbage)

2) Spray Termagant swarm with base color

3) Finish 4 genestealers, 4 hormagaunts

4) I gave up on the bumblebee wings seen on an earlier post- I'm not too fond of having one Tyranid, no matter if it is a leader, with a one-off mutation of insect wings. Having to put smaller de-volved wings on my Terms and Horms would be alright, but would totally be thwarted by gargoyles (to which I plan to have a lot of) and Shrikes (moreso, gargoyles and making wings would get really costly).

5) In lieu of those wings, I have another conversion that I'm thinking of... more on that later, if it succeeds. If not... maybe not.

--End Synaptic Transmission--

New Eye Painting Method?

Hmm... just watched an interest video by MiniWarGaming on Youtube about a Trygon painting contest. Guy won, blah blah blah... but he gave pretty cool details about how he did his stuff. What I personally took out of it-

- Using cork to make rock/rubble. Interesting concept. I've thought about how to do just that before, and on occasion, have used real pebbles with interesting shapes to represent rubble, but I can see a problem if they get too big. Also gives me a reason to drink more wine... hopefully with real cork stoppers.

- Different way of painting green- I've always used a method of GW Dark Angels Green, followed by Green Wash, then highlight with Scorpion Green, and finally a Skull White spec to simulate light on the eyeballs. He used a Green Foundation by GW (no idea what the name is), Scorpion Green highlight, then Green Wash- no highlight. The result was a slimy looking green that I might utilize for other projects.

You can see the video for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH65tVjOWO4.

Ta-daaah!! Rippers, baby!!

After a weekend that was way too short, filled with painting, dog-walking, hot nurses at an animal hospital, and video games... I only managed to finish one and a half things on my pre-weekend list. Blast it.

1) Finished the 40% complete Rippers- so really, it wasn't a complete job.

2) I got MOST of the Tyrant's arms drilled and magnetized. However, I got only 1 of 4sockets done on the pewter body... before my hand started getting too ripped up from gripping the drill bit.

Meh, whatever. Here are the rippers-



From the front- I have to admit, the feathering looks much better on these little guys than it does on the Warriors. No idea why, but I'm not enjoying the fact that I take so much time to blend and highlight all the fodder troops... If I was smart, I'd be dipping the troops... but it's just not for me. All this hard work WILL pay off in the end. It is MY swarm... my... precious...



A triangle-shot of the little guys... I'm overall very pleased with the color scheme, but I overdid it on the highlights. I ended up using too much of the final step 5 Blazing Orange + Skull White (peach) color and had to dull parts of it down with Baal Red wash. That, and it forced me to over-highlight my Warriors to fit in a bit more... ugh... I'm never touching those guys again... Wait. I lied. Gotta do the bases still.



...dead sexy. I'm thinking the next time I get a swarm with the little bits, I'm definitely going to make Ripper markers for the Parasite of Mortrex unique character- I'm thinking Imperial Guard... Chest Bursters a la Aliens... and lots Greenstuff conversions...

Side note to self- gotta finish the bases too...



A pic of the next creatures in line for "the treatment". Yes, Genestealers. Why man, WHY did I put those shoulder armor bits on? I could have had an easy eight troops to do without the elaborate blending and feathering stuff... ah well... it'll look better in the end. I'll just keep telling myself that.

Weekend (Tenative) Painting Schedule and Musings

I figure I'll be more motivated if I set small goals on the painting schedule- of all the armies I had to fall back into the hobby with, why did it have to be the Tyranid Swarm... why not the few, the proud... the Space Marines? Or Necrons? Either way, I've got a lot to do before I start the hobby- definitely not a fan of primered minis on the tabletop. I have until June before Hive Fleet Izanagi strikes out at the Imperium... er... playtests with my cousin's IGs and his friend's Space Wolves.

This Weekend

- Finish painting 3 Ripper Bases (currently about 40% complete)
- Begin and finish painting 5? 6 Hormagaunts? I've not tried it yet, so I'll have to see how many I can do before I commit to a number
- Find out where to buy Plasticard (any help here?) in the US- online or in Chicago.
- Begin magnetizing arms and modelling greenstuff wingports for Hive Tyrant

Hopefully have more pics on Monday...

Izanagi's Firstborn Complete!

Success! (Finally!) I just succeeded in completing the 3 warriors... out of... 40ish... in the Battle Force set. After some research and advice from Cool-Mini forum watchers, (didn't *exactly* take the advice, but it did inspire me to try some new things)I finished a carapace scheme which I am proud of- see below.



Mixture is as follows-

1) Mecharite Red + (oldskool) Regal Blue Base - 1.5:1 Ratio (Maroon/Burgundy)
2) Mecharite Red + Scab Red Wide Feathering - 1.5:1 Ratio
3) Mecharite Red + Blood Red Medium Feathering - 1.5:1 Ratio
4) Blazing Orange(oldskool) + Blood Red Fine Feathering - 1:1 Ratio
5) Blazing Orange (oldskool)+ Skull White Highlights on Cresting Areas - 1:1



Surprise attack from the paint pots!!



Detail of the Venom-Cannon Armed (and no, I'm sorry, but I didn't magnetize my guys...) Warrior- On the standard Warriors, the fleshy tubes were done with Dwarf Flesh and successive washes of Red Glaze and Gryphon Sepia for a "wet" look. This one, I painted on the green venom veins w/ Dark Angels Green, washed it with Sepia (when dry) and highlighted on the raised areas with Scorpion Green... may not be the best, but I think it looks great with the flesh tube pumping in ammo to the Warrior's gun.



Trio shot, and a clearer picture of the venom tubes. Also, you can see the final step 5) highlights on the heads. The VC Warrior's are a bit too pronounced... but I like the overall effect- makes it look like a Mexican Red-Knee Tarantula's legs... look it up. It's true.



Izanagi strikes from the dark!! Where they are... more are sure to follow...

Next will be the ripper swarms...

--End Synaptic Transmission--

Red Rum... RED RUM!!!

Bah!! First I fail at NMM, then I bust up my friggin' 'Nids...



I've jacked up the red feathering on both of my "complete" Warriors... before, it was a dull deep red/maroon that bordered on pink with the highlights. Then I tried fixing that to no avail with washes... and above is what turned out.

Seeing as how the red is a central theme to my models, and how I'll have to repeat this dozens of times over... I might as well get it right. Set up a thread on Cool-Mini-Or-Not, and if I don't get any bites, I'll try researching it later.

--End Synaptic Transmission--

Non-Metallic FAIL

Today will be a short, punctuated post. I came, I saw, I utterly FAILED to apply the concept of my non-metallic metal painting to my Queek model this past weekend. What came out was some very beautiful blending, a technique I know very well, but passe in the painting world. Good news is, I think I know what I did wrong- I didn't add the counter-shade areas, and instead just blended the model's armor to hell and back. Ah well, back to the drawing board.

Critiques of Current WIPs and Models

Hmm... set some WIP stuff up on my Cool Mini or Not account- HF Izanagi. Not as good as I hoped, but looking at the other stuff on there, not entirely surprised at the lower results either. I guess it's time to start upping my own personal standards again to get in line with the times. Woe the decade-long absence...

Above are some miniatures converted to various degrees (base models were all from the Anima Tactics line- good stuff, but definitely NOT all 28mm scale) to be used in our anime-themed warband for Games Workshop's WH Quest game- to be painted by yours truly. Guy in front is a Shaolin monk-type character- he got his hair modded for more "volume" (*shakes head*). The guy towards the left was my samurai character- his hair was cut off (originally some wild Medusa-like mane thing) and remade to look like Saotome Alto of Macross Frontier fame as a samurai. Guy in the back is a wizard-type and had got greenstuff added for volume as well... otherwise he'd have a pinhead.

And this is my Queek that has been languishing since I started the 'Nids, Cloud, and this Blog. I'm actually going to work on this model first, before any of the aforementioned Quest guys. On this model, I have plans to practice the non-metallic metal technique. I have a scheme in mind for his weapons and armor... and I'm hoping to put him up on Cool Mini when I finish- hopefully with a more positive reception.

Rinse... Wash... Repeat...

Ugh... in my decade of inactivity, I forgot how monotonous and maddening it was to paint up an army... I could do every single miniature and finish it that way in several years. Or I can do it the way I'm doing now- assembly line style where I do the same damn thing on several miniatures. Again. And again... And again.


Several Hormagaunts of Hive Fleet Izanagi at various stages of completion (READ- Random quality standards of spraying- the one all the way on the right has had the most current stage done.

1) Spray foundation paint Chara-ma-something Granite on entire model/model group (all GW paints and washes)

2) Fix any blemishes or unsprayed areas (there are lots of these- garbage, yo)

3) Paint Chaos Black on the carapace portions of the respected model(s)

4) Repeat step 2 if necessary on any models (yup, it gets necessary quite often)

5) Wash with Badab Black

- for now, that's as far as I've gone.

The most-complete Tyranid Warrior in my collection to date- this was from the past post's connundrum. Painted over his fiesta-style carapace highlights with Mecharite Red- I'm intent on doing it again but with a darker red theme and using Baal Wash to keep it that way.

The warriors at a bit more advanced stage - Step Six, which is to paint all chitin/scythes/hooves and claws with Scorched Brown before doing a gradual highlight from a guide I found - http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/66 - guy had fantastic red-skinned Tyranids with simulated bone for the carapace areas- That would be insane doing that for every single one of my models, so I'll just be doing it to bits and pieces.

Gyaaagh!! My "finished" Warrior with the repainted (ugh... looks like crap) scythes - (original "bone" color can be seen on leg protrusions before they got colored over. I'll be redoing it shortly...

The inner fleshy bits were done with foundation Hormagaunt Purple, washed with oldskool GW Purple Wash (or was it Blue Wash?), then highlighted with a personal concoction I made from varying GW paints- if I remembered how I made it, I'd write it here, but I really don't - mixture of old GW paints, old GW washes, Skull White was added there, but in what ratio, I can't remember- good thing I made a full pot of it! (^_^)V

--End Synaptic Transmission--

Color Scheme Connundrum

Hmm... what to do, what to do... how to finish coloring my Tyranid carapaces...? I have one prototype example and one "finished" product which I'm not pleased with...

This one is a black carapace done in GW paint Red Gore, then dabbed in GW Scab Red... then old school GW Red Glaze, (Amazing that crap still works!) but only for the upper body. This is obviously not finished, but done for an example to contrast with the Warrior below-

This one is pretty much finished (aside from re-doing the scythes, but that's beyond the point)- unfortunately, the final highlights of oldschool GW Blood Red (friggin' orange, man... really?) turned the overall color of the red tint... orange...ish...

ALL models will have the final highlight, but how to get that kind of dynamic look without resulting in a pinkish (oh yes, I've tried "lightening up" Scab Red or Gore Red, and came out with a deadly assassin... in a pink cape. My original scheme, thanks to the Tyranid Painter at Fallen Sun Asylum, was a dark grey (almost no highlights, but whatever- I think it was kinda lazy to begin with) with a black carapace and deep red highlights. Hmm... let's try that again.

I'll probably focus on WHQ guys I bought for my cousins from the brand Anima Tactics and modified this week...

--End Synaptic Transmission--